Agriculture officers drilled to store data

Ministry of Agriculture has drilled agriculture officers from Dowa District on how to store electronic agricultural records under a new National Agricultural Management System (Namis).

The system, which was under pilot phase in 12 districts where the ministry was implementing Agriculture Sector Wide Approach-Support II project, was developed to ensure efficiency in data management.

Speaking during the training, the ministry’s head statistical officer Brian Malunga said after a successful implementation of the system in piloting districts, Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (Cepa) helped them to roll the system to other districts, starting with Dowa.

“We will provide an android software application called Namis app where officers will record their work and send the information to the ministry’s server,” he said.

Dowa East crops officer Chifundo Mpoola said the system will ease their work as they will no longer type and print out reports.

Cepa programmes officer Alfred Kambwiri said the new system will benefit the civil society and media to get accurate agricultural data on the Internet.

Cepa supported the training through Sustainable Food Systems for Rural Resilience and Transformation Project it is implementing in Dowa and other four districts with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy through Development Fund of Norway.